August 31, 2017

Remember when Official Washington was bemoaning the justly-deserved firing of FBI Director James Comey? Remember how he was praised by Republican and Democrat alike for being a straight-shooter and honest man? Remember how Trump making an off-hand remark supposed to be obstruction of justice and required a special counsel to investigate?

No honest person does that. Lots of people wondered why the FBI was offering bizarre immunity deals and swearing not to closely examine Hillary's server or emails.

Well, duh, the fix was in.

We might not know about this but for Comey's obviously limited intelligence. The guy clearly can't just lie off the cuff, but needs week to rehearse his lies.

It should be abundantly clear at this point that the whole RUSSIA STOLE THE ELECTION!!1! story was simply an attempt to distract from a Justice Dept. conspiracy to clear Hillary and cover up her crimes.

August 30, 2017

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the people of Houston and surrounding communities as they struggle to recover from devastating floods and damages caused by Tropical Storm Harvey's wicked winds and relentless rainfall. Some areas received more than 50 inches of rain in the period of 4 days.

At least 15 people are confirmed dead, rescue and evacuation efforts are ongoing, and tens of thousands of people are staying in temporary shelters. Damages are expected to top $50 billion, and that includes not just houses and buildings, but key infrastructure such as bridges and major roads.

One telling statistic underscores how much better this been than what occurred in New Orleans: More than 1,800 people perished in the Big Easy, and a tiny fraction of that have lost their lives so far in Houston.

Another encouraging development is that, so far, the response by the federal, Texas and local governments seems to be infinitely more competent and coordinated than what took place in New Orleans with Hurricane Katrina 12 years ago. This is due to several things: The Federal Emergency Management Agency is better run and better prepared now than 12 years ago, and emergency responders at all levels seem to have embraced the essential "3 P's" of emergency management -- Prepare, Plan, Practice.

Additionally, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott didn't hesitate to activate and employ the National Guard -- something then Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco waited too long to do in 2005. Abbott's administration, the city of Houston and surrounding towns seem to be working effectively with their state and federal partners. Needless to say, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is far more competent (and honest) than New Orleans' inept and crooked former mayor, Ray Nagin, who is now serving 10 years in the federal pen for money laundering and bribery.

Technology is also key. Smart phones (introduced with the first iPhone in June 2007) and Twitter didn't exist in 2005, when Katrina struck. Twitter, launched in summer 2006, has helped connect rescuers and resources with people in need. Too, wireless technology companies such as Verizon and AT&T invested heavily in generators and beefed up infrastructure to keep communications from failing. The density of many New Orleans neighborhoods and the fact parts of the city are below sea level also made things tougher there.

Despite the encouraging response efforts and the Trump administration's ability to manage the crisis, the inevitable political sniping has not taken a vacation. The vermin of the media are making snarky comments about, of all things, the heels Melania Trump was wearing when she and her husband arrived in Texas. And several commentators on CNN and elsewhere are complaining that Trump is showing no emotion or empathy for the victims. (Did any of them care that their hero, Barack Obama, was like a robot with Asperger Syndrome whenever a practitioner of the "Religion of Peace" killed and maimed with a terror attack? I didn't think so.) These folks are never, ever happy when their statist buddies are out of power, so this should come as no surprise.

And so it goes. We are a great nation, and we will bounce back from Harvey. To use that old line again, there is nothing wrong with America that what's right about America can't fix.

August 27, 2017

Predictably, the news media vermin are blowing a gasket about President Trump pardoning former Maricopa County, Arizona, Sheriff Joe Arpaio, and a brief review of the specifics makes their reaction look all the more unhinged.

Arpaio incurred the wrath of liberals and open border proponents when he strictly enforced federal immigration laws. Defying a court order to stop detaining immigrants based solely on the suspicion that they were in the country illegally, his deputies conducted traffic patrols that targeted illegal immigrants. In the process, they busted many illegals. Arpaio was a "by the book" and "letter of the law" enforcer of federal immigration laws, and that just won't fly with many liberals in Washington, D.C., in the hallowed halls of academia, and among hispanic special interest groups.

The same folks who object to Obamacare resisters ("It's the law of the land!") suddenly are squishy when it comes to enforcing federal immigration law. Sanctuary cities are all the rage. Ditto for states that legalized marijuana possession and use. I guess federal drug laws against marijuana are not the law of the land, after all!

But here's the larger point: During his last few weeks in office, President Obama granted commutations or clemency to numerous hardened criminals who had been drug dealers in urban areas. Maybe they themselves didn't execute people with firearms, but their henchmen damned sure did.

Moreover, the cocaine, heroin and other drugs these thugs peddled undoubtedly caused untold deaths, injuries, ruined careers, broken marriages and misery all around. So the president who garnered 90-95 percent support among African Americans in 2008 and 2012 basically freed a few brothers in the name of "fairness" despite the carnage they inflicted upon other blacks. Strange how liberalism works.

Oh, and another thing. Didn't Eric Holder, the uber-partisan Attorney General under Obama, refuse to turn over documents to a House of Representatives investigative committee regarding the Fast and Furious fiasco? And wasn't he held in Contempt of Congress? Yes, but he's a black liberal Democrat, so he gets a pass, of course.

As usual, hypocrisy is widespread and blatant. On the one hand, an honorable man is seeking to protect the integrity of our borders from lawbreakers who often overburden our social services, hospitals, law enforcement and schools; on the other hand, scum-of-the-earth drug dealers whose poison killed and wreaked heartbreak in urban ghettos are given a pass by the Nobel Peace Prize winning Lightworker.

August 26, 2017

One of the singular characteristics of modern progressives is the fact that they have a flat learning curve.

No matter how many times reality slaps down their fantasies, they're ready to double-down and try again.

A number of sensible people have tried to point out that there is no way to reach their desired end state, but that assumes that there in fact isa desired end state. I don't they they've worked that through yet.

But one thing they are doing is creating the very thing they claim to hate - a real, broad-based white nationalist movement.

They are doing this through a variety of self-defeating tactics. Here are a few off the top of my head:

DEMAND ENDLESS APOLOGIES FOR SOMEONE ELSE'S CRIME: The Dems have used this on Republicans for decades with good success, but now progressives have decided to extend it to white people in general. As they've done so, they've also raised their demands - it isn't just enough to express outrage that someone who happens to share a similar skin tone did something criminal and stupid, no one must now apologize for each and every instance of it.

If the apologies aren't viewed as sincere enough, progressives will demand ever greater shows of contrition on pain of calling one a racist.

Given that this nation was founded in an act of rebellion against royal authority, this seems a particularly stupid course of action. And since the penalty is to be called a racists, it's a remarkably easy way to populate enemy ranks.

PHYSICALLY ATTACK REVERED HISTORICAL MONUMENTS: Nothing wins people over like targeted acts of vandalism. What? You aren't down with smashing historic works of art? Well, that makes you a WHITE NATIONALIST.

CALL FOR OVERT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST ALL WHITE PEOPLE: I'm sure that the Illinois Nazis are kicking themselves over not implementing this forty years ago. Arbitrarily picking on people because of skin color is a sure way to build resentment where none existed before.

Indeed, Hollywood uses this trope all the time, only in reverse. Strange that so many Hollywood progressives don't understand how this stuff actually works.

CLAIM THAT THERE CAN NEVER BE RACIAL HARMONY OR MUTUAL UNDERSTANDING: The Hated Instapundit has found a marvelous quote that seems to describe the situation perfectly:

“You are a white man. Check your privilege. Stay in your lane. You will never understand black people’s lives or experiences. You’re all about whiteness, that’s how you’re conditioned.” — SJWs

“I am a white man. What a privilege. I’m going to stay in my lane. I will never understand black people. I’m all about whiteness, it’s how I’m conditioned.” — White Nationalists

DEMAND RACIALLY SEGREGATED HOUSING AND SCHOOLS: This one is a doozy, and while a lot of commentators have noted that it turns Brown v. The Board of Education on its head, it also creates white-only spaces as well.

Think about it: If all the "people of color" are gathered into their own designated ghettos safe spaces, by definition the whites get the rest.

It should go without saying that I find all of this deeply disturbing. It wasn't that long ago that people got along and when Barack Obama was elected, I consoled myself with the thought that at least we had put the lie to rest that Americans would never vote for a black president.

Alas, eight short years later, the progressives have resurrected racial hatred from its long slumber.

Perhaps the rise of a larger white nationalist community will inject some common sense into these people. The unwisdom of trying to convince 70 percent of the population to hate themselves will surely become apparent before the battle lines are drawn.

August 23, 2017

It is highly discouraging and disheartening to know that the United States has been at war in Afghanistan for 16 long years, with no end in sight. But it is encouraging to know that the administration of President Donald Trump will not cut and run from that godforsaken land, nor will it hamstring our brave soldiers as was done by former President Obama. Moreover, Trump wants Pakistan, a country we support with billions of dollars of military aid, to be more responsible in rooting out terrorists, cracking down on corruption and being a reliable partner in opposing Islamofascists throughout the region.

Earlier this week, when Trump announced we would be sending more troops to Afghanistan, he did not foolishly divulge specific numbers or a timetable for when troops would be withdrawn. Providing a timetable, as Obama did, is as idiotic as a quarterback intentionally telegraphing his pass plays. If the QB locks his eyes on a certain receiver, and the QB's positioning and body language make it apparent he intends to throw to that target, it makes things so much easier for the defense.

In the same way, providing the Taliban with our scheduled dates for troop reduction and ultimate pull-out, enables the bad guys to simply lie low with a strategy of sniper fire and occasional ambushes, combined with terrorism -- UNTIL most of the troops are gone. Then, the Taliban can make fast work of the territories it still seeks to control.

The American troops will help train and support the Afghan army and allies, and will no longer be constrained by insane "rules of engagement" that were obviously dreamed up by idealistic left-wing kooks in the ivory tower who don't have a clue about the dynamics of warfare. It seems Obama was far more worried about innocent Afghanis dying when our troops fired against the Taliban, than he was American military personnel being killed or wounded by enemies who often posed as Afghan troops or civilians.

Thank God for that change. As my co-blogger mentioned, Trump has surrounded himself with some pretty sharp military men. And just as he's done with NATO and with demanding that European nations pay more for their own defense, he will do with Pakistan, which often does not seem to provide a good return on our dollars.

No one knows what's going to happen in Afghanistan. But it seems clear to me that the sensible policies and competence now at work will prove far more successful than the failed policies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama.

Earlier this week, I highlighted the hypocrisy of self-proclaimed feminist Joss Whedon - a man who supposedly checks all the Social Justice Warrior boxes while simultaneously cheating on his wife with aspiring starlets who seek to trade sex for career advancement.

In response, our resident troll tried to draw a comparison between Whedon's behavior and the pederasty scandal with the Catholic Church. I properly ignored it, because it is utterly irrelevant, but another commenter has brought it up.

(Strangely, traffic has been somewhat low due to light posting, and that particular post got almost no traffic, which seems to indicate the presence of a sock puppet.)

Still, the question is worth answering because it highlights the difference between two concepts the left constantly tries to conflate: moral failure and hypocrisy.

Moral failure happens when an individual violates a given moral code. Being fallible, it's not usual even for the most virtuous among us to suffer such lapses, and in fact the higher one reaches, the farther one can fall. A key element is an admission on the part of the person (or institution) that their behavior has failed to meet an acceptable standard. Often this is combined with a renewal of purpose and (in an institution) needed reform to prevent the lapse from happening again.

Hypocrisy, by contrast, is simply a double standard. The Democrats have long held to a double standard regarding race relations, sex scandals and more recently, political violence.

The operative concept is "It's okay when WE do it."

This perfectly applies to the SJW crowd in general, and Whedon in particular. Democrats happily excused Bill Clinton's predatory sexual behavior because he was one of them. Censorship used to be the ultimate evil, something the ACLU was sworn to stop, but when it comes from the left, it's okay. The list goes on and on.

Once one understands these definitions, the silliness of comparing Whedon's casting couch and the pederasty scandal in the Catholic Church becomes self-evident.

The Church was not a willing participant, but instead an unwitting vehicle of sexual predators. These vile men exploited its structure, its culture of forgiveness and the trust of its members to gratify their lusts. It was a colossal moral failure and the Church has not only expressed its sorrow and regret, it has also made significant changes in how it treats such allegations and the behavioral standards of its clergy.

Hollywood - the bastion of SJWs - has had no such reckoning and has no interest in one. Roman Polanski remains a respected and admired man. Whedon will not want for work. Indeed, it was only recently that California finally banned convicted sex offenders from working with child actors.

The contrast cannot be more clear. I thank the additional commenter for convincing me to more fully discredit this false equivalence.

August 22, 2017

I did not get a chance to see the president's speech, but having perused it contents, I'm struck by how utterly sensible it is.

In fact, it's shocking in its sensibility.

The fact is, the US cannot simply pull out and declare victory. We already tried that and it didn't work. The Obama administration cared only about winning the news cycle and with it the next election. Global strategy was at best an afterthought.

Indeed, Obama's single greatest strategic accomplishments were an unenforceable climate agreement and a deal that legitimized Iran's nuclear program that his own staffers admitted was a con job.

Trump is taking a dramatically different approach. First and foremost, he is treating war as a question of life and death rather than a photo opportunity. Key strategic decisions will be made by his generals, not a bunch of White House political hacks.

When we strike, we won't hold a press conference to alert our enemies. We will also empower commanders to do what they need to do, rather than subjecting every decision to a paralyzing legal analysis.

Given the terrible strategic situation he inherited and the broken state of our military (the Navy is being forced to stand down after yet another collision), Trump has his work cut out for him. Fortunately, he seems to have a solid command team in place and is willing to listen to their opinions.

If his his critics were honest, they would admit that this is a simple, defensible strategy, based on common sense. It is a refreshing change.

August 21, 2017

There has been no shortage of unhinged reactions to the Trumpening in Hollywood, but Joss Whedon early on set himself apart both in the quantity and coarseness of his hate.

Whedon's rants were uncharacteristically vicious, and many people who enjoyed his shows (including the marvelously pro-libertarian Firefly) were shocked by the venom on display. What was wrong with him?

Well, via the hated Instapundit, we now know. Whedon's marriage had disintegrated and he was no doubt dealing with the fallout. According to his ex-wife, Whedon - who acts as the ultimate feminist and exquisitely-sensitive social justice warrior - was in fact just another Hollywood producer with an usually active casting couch. Remember: men abusing their power to take sexual advantage of women is perfectly okay when progressives do it.

Social justice warriors aren't just hypocrites, though. They are quite simply miserable, angry people. They have wretched lives and seeing people enjoying themselves is what really fills them with rage.

That's their true motivation and why they are never satisfied with whatever victories they achieve. Like a horde of locusts, they immediately move onto another issue to scream about.

It is useful to note that Conservatism, Inc. has no real problem with this. Their primary interest is keeping the donor class happy and getting enough money so that they can avoid the poverty trap that their policies of corporatism and unlimited immigration create. I've pointed it out before, but it bears repeating: When the Supreme Court imposed gay marriage on this country, the hacks at National Review immediately proclaimed the issue had be settled and that it was time to move on. They were careful to note that while they personally disagreed, the politics of the issue were bad so it was better to just talk about something else - like how poor whites need to die faster.

This is why the vandalism won't stop with war memorials, nor will we ever achieve whatever utopia they insist is just around the corner. SJWs cannot create, they can only destroy. The radicals now running the tech giants are giving us a taste of this destructive power by deciding which web sites they're going to delete.

Whedon of course does create, but he also debases himself in the process. His SJW tweeting was a way for him to work out his guilt, by redirecting it at others. His particular loathing of Donald Trump makes perfect sense because we always detest in others what we loathe in ourselves.

That's why Antifa is the mirror image of the Nazis they say they want to smash.

They don't hate fascists, they hate the bigotry within themselves and no matter how many statues they wreck, it will still be there, spurring them to new levels of rage.

This is going to be a short commentary, in part because it's Monday morning and I need to get ready for work.

President Trump's former chief strategist Steve Bannon, in the wake of his rant to left-wing journalist Robert Kuttner of the American Prospect, stated he "thought the interview was off the record." DUH!

And a few weeks ago, former communications director Anthony Scaramucci granted an interview to another left-wing rag, the New Yorker, during which he trashed many of his co-workers in the West Wing. Scaramucci also lamely contended that he trusted the reporter's promise that it was off the record.

Which is it? These two fools were naive enough to believe the "off-the-record" promise from news media vipers? Or they were condescendingly assuming that millions of Americans are stupid and gullible enough to believe their absurd statements?

Bannon and Scaramucci were both sacked in short order, and rightfully so.

Now, let's go back to December 2015, in the wake of the Islamofascist shootings at a San Bernardino, California workplace. Followup reporting revealed that the female half of the Islamofascist couple, Tashfeen Malik, had posted virulent jihadist propaganda on Facebook while she was living in her native Pakistan.

Why, pray tell, was this monster allowed into the United States, when we spend billions on defense, intelligence and security. Well, in a policy that rivals Bannon and Scaramucci for stupidity and delusion, the Department of Homeland Security announced that immigration officials were prohibited from reviewing social media postings of foreigners applying for U.S. visas. It seems they were concerned about a civil liberties backlash. You can't make this stuff up.

It never ceases to astound me how people appointed to high positions can be so incredibly dense. Is hallucination widespread in the halls of power? Or are stupidity and delusion contagious?

August 19, 2017

And so it has come to this. What passes for political discourse in 2017 has morphed into a raging, irrational movement to wipe out historical monuments.

The violent clash in Charlottesville, Virginia last Saturday stemmed from a demonstration by so-called Alt-Right groups against the city's decision to remove a monument to Civil War Gen. Robert E. Lee. When the hard-left Antifa group showed up as counter-demonstrators, and police followed orders to stand down, all hell broke loose.

In Orlando, New Orleans, Baltimore, Austin, Texas and several other cities, statues and monuments have already been taken down by authorities. In Durham, North Carolina, left-wing protesters tore one down illegally. Numerous other city and county governments are considering removing confederate markers in the coming months. Governors Terry McAuliffe of Virginia and Roy Cooper of North Carolina have called for removal of all confederate monuments in their states.

Antifa and the progressives believe that the monuments and statues glorify the rebellion against the United States in support of slavery, and thus inspire hatred and bigotry while also being hurtful to minorities. Once again, emotion and imagery seem to play an outsize role in the left-wing mindset.

It truly is a slippery slope, because, as President Trump remarked, what's next, statues of George Washington and Thomas Jefferson because they owned slaves? And what else could follow? Changing street and school names from coast to coast? Changing the name of Washington state and Washington, D.C., because they're named after the father of our nation, a slaveholder? Forcing the Dallas Cowboys to change their nickname because cowboys often were cruel to Indians in the wild, wild West?

And, just for laughs, let me relate this wry observation from a talk radio wag: The Democrat Party needs to change its name, since Democrats for many decades supported the Ku Klux Klan, Jim Crow laws, and institutional racism throughout the South, all the while denying blacks the right to vote, to obtain an education, to get good jobs and live in decent housing.

One of the arguments the left uses is that we shouldn't have to pay tax dollars to support symbols of oppression and bigotry. (After all, these monuments and statues probably require some occasional cleaning and maintenance, even though their original cost was paid for decades ago.)

But that, too, is a slippery slope. I recall left-wingers in the 1980s complaining that their tax dollars helped pay for nuclear missiles. The problem with this line of thought is, it's very easy to turn the tables. Millions of conservative Americans strongly object to their tax dollars being used for abortion -- i.e., sucking fetuses from the womb with vacuum tubes, to be blunt.

We also are appalled that federally funded grants from the National Endowment for the Arts support pornographic and anti-Christian "art." You know, wonderful creations such as Piss Christ, showing a crucifix submerged in urine, or the late Robert Mapplethorpe's photo of himself with a bullwhip coming out of his anus.

We live in an emotionally charged era, and social media seems to be the gasoline fueling the raging flames. What the self righteous left wingers don't get is that tearing down statues of confederate soldiers does very little for the blacks they purport to care about. It won't improve horrid, gang- and drug-infested inner city schools; it won't stop the mindless shootings in South Chicago, nor will it stop corrupt politicians from screwing over their constituents; and it won't help the aimless young men whose fathers have abandoned them and are often either dead or in prison.

Oh, but it does enable those enlightened liberals to primp and preen on social media and MSNBC. Gotta feed that narcissistic need for admiration and acclaim, don't we?